Day/night sights would typically be used by military and law enforcement personnel to aim weapons used in both day time and night time conditions. Typically, a day/night sight includes an objective lens, a reticle and an eyepiece in series with parallel day and night channels. A channel selector may be used to alternatively direct an image of a target into the day or night channel.
In a day/night sight, the objective lens and the eyepiece may be telescopic to provide a magnified image of the target. The day channel generally uses ambient light to generate an image of the target. The image may be projected to the reticle during day time use to be viewed by the user. The night channel generally includes an image intensifier to generate an illuminated image of the target. The illuminated image may be transmitted to the reticle during night time use to be viewed by the user. The reticle may include markings for aiming the weapon.
Day/night and other types of sights are typically mounted to a weapon with integral feet members configured for that specific weapon. Consequently, an adapter must often be used when a sight is mounted onto a weapon for which it was not particularly designed. The adapter is generally mounted directly to the weapon and the sight mounted to the adapter. As a result, adapters generally raise the position of the sight relative to the weapon. The additional spacing between the sight and the weapon may make the sight awkward to use and thus degrade the user's performance with the weapon.